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State of the Farm

Abe Flores was named the new Director of Player Development on October 16, 2007. Photo Courtesy Angels Baseball.

A FutureAngels.com tradition is the annual State of the Farm report, a snapshot in time with the Angels’ farm director. These reports go back to 2000, except for 2005 (equipment malfunction) and 2006 (the web site was on hiatus).

I recorded tonight an interview with Abe Flores, the Angels’ new Director of Player Development. Abe was the Manager of Baseball Operations when Tony Reagins was promoted to General Manager on October 16, 2007, succeeding Bill Stoneman. Reagins and Stoneman offered him Tony’s old job, as he tells in the interview.

We talk about the Dominican academy, including Japanese player Ikko Sumi who played there in 2007; injury status for Hank Conger, Young-Il Jung and Jon Bachanov; and prospects Brandon Wood, Nick Adenhart, Jordan Walden, Sean O’Sullivan, Hainley Statia and Chris Pettit.

If you go to the FutureAngels.com home page at www.futureangels.com, you’ll see the links for the prior State of the Farm reports. Those include 2002, after Tony Reagins had been promoted from Manager of Baseball Operations to Director of Player Development. Six years later, Tony is the general manager.

That’s part of the fun with these annual reports. Not only do you hear what was management’s thinking about players and development philosophy at a particular time, but you also hear these farm directors at a certain point in their careers. Six years from now, who knows what Abe will be doing.

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